This disclosure relates generally to computer system resource virtualization, and more particularly to reducing redundant validations for live operating system migration.
A physical computer can host multiple virtual machine instances, each also referred to as a logical partition (LPAR) or client. Each virtual machine shares the hardware resources of the physical computer, and emulates a physical computer. A virtualization manager, also referred to as a virtual I/O server (VIOS), manages the virtualization of the physical hardware resources. Each virtual machine is under the control of an operating system. In the virtualized environment, the operations of the physical computer and the virtual machines are managed by a control point, also referred to as a hardware management console (HMC). In one exemplary operation, under the coordination of the control point and virtualization manager, the executing workloads of one or more of the virtual machines can be migrated from one physical computer to another without disruption. This migration is referred to as a mobility event, live partition mobility, or live operating system migration. In a typical mobility event configuration, the source and target physical computers share a connection to a storage area network (SAN) since the source and target physical computers can be geographically separated. The migrating virtual machine also has a virtual connection to the SAN through the source physical computer. The mobility event is preceded by a pre-migration validation, in which the control point establishes an inventory of physical resources used by the virtual machine on the source machine and verifies that sufficient compatible physical resources, particularly the shared SAN connection, are available on the target physical computer.
Migrating virtual machines can increase application availability, since the executing workload can be non-disruptively migrated to facilitate data center operations, such as hardware maintenance and software upgrades. However, the pre-migration validation checks can consume a significant portion of the overall migration, since some configurations may include an extensive inventory of devices. Therefore, safely eliminating redundant pre-migration validation checks can increase the performance of mobility events.